Julia and Jonathen
by deliqueena
Summary: After living countless lives over six centuries, Juliet, Julia in this life, hopes that this will finally be the life in which she and her only love can be together for longer than a day or two. Maybe Fate will finally let her shed her strings?
1. Chapter 1

As we kissed, I felt his non-committance in his lips. His tongue probed my mouth with the enthusiasm of someone who would soon be leaving it, and would probably never return. It was the enthusiasm of a free spirit with nothing to lose and everything to gain, and my kiss was one of the things he had picked up on his journey. But I wished beyond my whole being that he would stay this time, stay and make his kiss mine too, not a one-sided gain but an equal sharing of love and lust and happiness in the sharing. I pushed my wishes into him with my lips and silently pleaded with him to stay, just once, with me. But each time we met like this, it always ended the same, with him leaving and me staying behind, wishing and pining for his return, even though it had not once happened as I wished. In more than six centuries, he had never stayed. Why should today be any different? Maybe fate would finally rest its hold from us and we could be happy together, just for one lifetime. I would settle for one lifetime with him. I could taste chocolate in his mouth today. I still don't know how I survived so many lifetimes without chocolate. Or without him by my side.

We broke the kiss in one fluid motion, both of us breathing heavily. He took my hand and kissed it with a bittersweet smile. He knew the fates had other plans for him today, and apparently I was not part of them, so he embraced his aloneness. Mounting his beautiful stallion, he threw one last longing glance over his shoulder at my tear-streaked face before he kicked the creature and rode away in the direction of the setting sun. I watched him go, but I could only bear the sight of him disappearing out of my life for another lifetime for so long. I wish we could be happy together, just once. But I suppose it will be only a matter of years before we meet again.

My name, at least in this lifetime, is Julia Low. I like this name. It's the closest I've come to Juliet in a long while, and I feel more attached to names that were close to my first. The first life that I can remember, I was Juliet Capulet, but I was young and I hadn't nearly as much sense as I should have, back then. I suppose it comes from only living through one lifetime. Now, I know better than to fall in with potions and suchlike, but the Fates are cruel, and I'm never immune to small acts of stupidity in any life. I don't recall ever living past 25 in any of my lives. Only a few of my deaths have been caused by my own hand, and those were early on. I couldn't tell you how many times I have lived, even if I tried. I can recall most of my lives but more than once I haven't lived past twelve, and it becomes hazy to try and recall what happened in those times. I never forget my encounters with my love, though. In this life, he goes by the name of Jonathen Crow. He was once Romeo Montague, but he was never so attached to his first name, and so he is always content with the name he is given at his rebirth. He remembers less than I do of his past lives, but he has told me that he always remembers me. He dreams about me for years until he meets me, and I of him. But our meetings are always so short, and we always die so soon afterwards. It isn't always fair to me, or to him, but our destiny is not one that is easily controlled, so we meet and then watch for our death with one eye as we kiss goodbye.


	2. Chapter 2

Jonathen POV

When I kissed her, I felt a spark between us. But it was bigger than anything I've ever felt before in this lifetime- less of a spark and more of a lightning-bolt of emotion and desire. I can't explain it any further- it simply _was_. And what it _was_ defied imagination. It brought back memories that were mine but not mine, knowledge I had not acquired in this life, dreams I had only scraped the surface of. With that kiss, I remembered all the kisses like it, full of desire and regret and wishes for another way. Wishes that the kiss could mean something else, instead of our now-impending death and rebirth. Of many long years of feeling a longing without a focus, until the focus is found and suddenly gone again. Oh, the longing! It had followed me around all this life, all of every life I could now remember, and never, ever had it been properly fulfilled. How can I now turn away from my dreams? But I can't ever fight the Fates. I remember them now, can see their hands on my fateful many-looped threads of life, and on my Juliet's too. No. No longer Juliet, but Julia. She must be joyous at this name, in this life. She always liked her name. But what a name- Romeo! I have not so much attraction to it. I would be mocked, in this age, for our names are so tied together in history!

When I was forced (Oh traitorous body! Oh malicious Fates!) to let my Julia go, I was breathing harder than I should have been. She makes my heart misbehave, gorgeous girl she is. But the Fates pulled me along, as they do, and I had to let her go for another lifetime, leave he standing alone in the dust, unable to look back without breaking my strings and my heart. She knows, too, that soon we will depart this life and move on to the next. It has always been the way. It's as if our touch is a glorious poison for which our kiss is catalyst. My heart aches as I ride on, further from my girl, closer to my fate, trapped in a cycle of love and death.


	3. Tangled Webs

Fate POV

My job is a little frustrating, at times. I'm blamed for a lot. People curse my name. I suppose, considering what I do, I deserve some of that hate. Some, but not all. The happy endings are my responsibility, too. The lovers kiss, the serendipitous chance meeting, the happily ever after. I make them happen. But generally, Fate gets dragged out and over coals when bad things happen. Fatal. Ill-fated. Bad luck.

Most people come under my hands once, twice if they're lucky. The only exception I've seen in my existence is a pair of lovers who never seem to find the happy ending they wish for. In their first life, they were called Romeo and Juliet. These days, they're a legend. Their names are twined together in the minds of people as perfect lovers, and they are idealised and wished for. But truly, they barely knew each other then. They were so young, so innocent, so carefree and headstrong. Until I came into the picture, I suppose they would have found true happily ever after in each other, but the powers larger than I moved me to keep the girl asleep a little longer, the boy to drive the hand into himself just as the girl began to wake, and her despair drove the rest. But, instead of the two being lost in the paths beyond my control, they drifted back through my realm and were reborn.

In the beginning, I thought little of it. They were not the first to have passed through twice, and certainly would not be the last. But, in that lifetime, they once again followed the path of love and loss and death, they still returned through my domain. Curious. It was an unprecedented return, of more than once. And as they were reborn once more, their lives once again traced their now-familiar path.

Birth. Meetings. Love. Death. And repeat.

Over and over. More times than I ever imagined possible, the lovers met and fell in sync with one another, retracing their lives like clockwork. I grew accustomed to their presence in my realm, and soon I barely noticed their retrace. New lives began and ended, but theirs went on. The girl kept most memories. The boy remembered when they kissed. And that kiss was always the beginning of their end, the catalyst for their return to me. After watching them for so long, I began to wonder whether I could influence their path. Once, I crossed their paths early in their lives. The pattern was shorter, but it still remained.

Birth. Meeting. Love. Death.

I've tried to keep their paths separate. But the paths jump and twist until once again they meet side by side and cross to a dead end. This time, I want to try to keep them alive after they kiss and meet and part. If I cross their paths twice, will they survive?


End file.
